Clean Water Act
ct. 18th marks the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA), perhaps the most far-sighted environmental legislation in American history. The CWA established the first permits for regulating discharge of pollutants into “waters of the U.S.” (Though which waters fit that description has been debated ever since.) Prior to 1972, states had the authority over water-quality standards, and the push for a federal law was sparked—literally and figuratively—by Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River
